Creators of Ruya

TRANZFUSER WEEK #4

This week we have been working on many things and we also got the opportunity to attend Develop down in Brighton. It was a fantastic event that all four members went to see and thanks to UK Games Talent we even got a free ticket for the Indie Dev Day sessions. The talks were really inspiring which has been really beneficial for all of us. We played some great games and spoke to some interesting people. Not only that but we managed to play test our own game with whoever we could and got some great advice from other game developers. We’ll definitely be going again next year.

This has been our fourth week and we’re starting to add new art assets in to the scene. One of these is the new multiplier. From where it was originally to the left, we have now centred it down the middle underneath Ruya. We’ve added rotating flower petals to spin in unison with the multiplier timer and it helps with the whole awe and wonder of the game. This along with Ruya’s arms opening when the multiplier is active creates a warm and welcoming aura about her.

From internal playtesting we already can feel the difference. It’s much more centred and takes up a larger area of the screen, this is focusing the player’s attention on how to gain more points in less amount of swipes. Remember, the player’s objective is to reach the target score. Each game piece within a swiped shape gives you 10 points. If the multiplier is at x2 then this will be 20 points. The level limits the player with a certain number of swipes. So to have an increased chance of success, players need to swipe quickly. The multiplier design encourages this through different coloured flowers for higher levels of multipliers to give an increased sense of achievement.

Surrounding Ruya is her dream catchers. These are diegetic UI components designed so the player is kept immersed and are tangible to Ruya herself. These show the swipe count, target shape, score and bubble count.

A first pass on the character designs have been created. These are like Ruya’s traits/characteristics that you need to wake up.

We have managed to get a new type cell implemented. This is an empty/invisible cell. It creates a different level of strategy the player needs to deal with. It restricts the player’s movement from swiping shapes across the other side of the empty cell. The logic behind shape swiping and re-positioning the game pieces below is fairly complex. One of the greatest challenges we’ve been having is implementing the logic behind these different types of cells to alter the movement of the lower game pieces.

Some of this weeks core tasks will be:

Finishing the block cell.

Finishing the balloon mechanic.

Second pass on the character and re-design for Ruya.

Second pass on the shape and design of each of the coloured game pieces testing different shapes for clarity.